Wolfgang Egger, Audi’s chief designer is to be replaced by the Volkswagen senior designer Marc Lichte who is the designer of the current Golf. Egger is leaving the company but not going too far as he is leaving to head Italdesign Giugiaro in Turin which was bought by the Volkswagen Group in 2010, with its freshly new creations including the Lamborghini Gallardo.
Whether Lichte’s arrival will mark a turning point in the brand’s design or not, the Volkswagen Group hopes it will calm matters at Audi Design, which has most recently been rocked by the departure of Achim Badstübner for Mercedes-Benz. From 1 January, Badstübner will head the brand’s exterior design from Sindelfingen, Germany.
Egger took over the place at Audi from Walter de Silva and has been accountable most recently for the Audi A6 and A3, as well as the 2010 Quattro Concept and the E-Tron Concept and has been head of design for the Audi and Lamborghini brands since 2007. He also worked in Lancia and then at Alfa Romeo as the head of design.
Egger’s design career has seen many successes since he graduated from the International College of Arts and Sciences in Milan, Italy, in 1989. He is credited with the design of the Alfa Romeo 147, 156 and 166 as well as the first generation SEAT Ibiza, Cordoba and Altea during his time at the Volkswagen Group’s Spanish subsidiary. Egger left SEAT to become head of design at Lancia in 2001, returning to Alfa Romeo later that same year to design the 8C Competizione.
The 50-year-old German designer will now move to a senior design role within Italdesign Giugiaro, which was acquired by the Volkswagen Group in 2010. Many of the Volkswagen Group’s brands have teams within Italdesign working on future products. As former Bentley exterior design director Raul Pires now heads Italdesign’s transport studio, Egger’s new role has yet to be specified.
Switching from Audi to Italdesign which is far smaller in the car market, is a sideways move at best, but it is not deprived of dares. As head of Italdesign, a formerly independent design house which is still partly owned by patriarch Giorgio Giugiaro – Egger will continue to provide alternative design proposals for the Volkswagen Group’s different brands. In August 2010, the Volkswagen Group bought 90.1 percent of the ailing design house. Most recently, Italdesign has shown the Parcour concept car, which was retouched and displayed as the Audi Nanuk quattro concept at the Frankfurt auto show.
Though no official statement was made by Audi or Volkswagen but the German industry magazine ‘Automobilwoche’ is reporting that Wolfgang Egger will leave Audi to work for the Turin-based design house, which is a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group.
